Education improves after damning report

Argyll and Bute Council’s education service has made ‘positive progress’ following a damning report by inspectors last year.

In March 2017, the council was ‘savaged’ by Education Scotland’s report on its functions, which marked four out of five areas as ‘weak’, and concluded ‘urgent and sustained action was required’.

Argyll and Bute MSP Michael Russell said the ‘deeply worrying and very depressing’ report was ‘one of the worst ever published’. He said staff and pupils had been ‘badly let down’ by a ‘collapse of senior management’, and called for those responsible to resign.

‘Education Scotland must exercise the closest supervision of the council’s Education Department from now on and ensure that an improvement plan is brought forward with urgency.’

Further inspections were carried out in the summer, concluding ‘much more remains to be done’.

Last week Education Scotland published its latest report on the steps the council is taking to improve, finding ‘the authority has made positive progress in the main points for action contained within the original inspection report. The council has continued to build on its early progress across a number of key aspects of leadership.

‘The council’s recent budget decisions demonstrate its confidence in the work of the central team to take forward the continuous improvement of its education service.

‘Under the strong leadership of the chief education officer, staff have sustained and strengthened their efforts to embed improvements at all levels of the education community. The two recently appointed heads of service have a strong capacity to enhance leadership across the authority.’